D Write:Supply the correct plural forms. WHAT DOES IT COME UNDER?

If you're dieting there are certain (food) ^{1 …} you really have to avoid: (cake)^г...and (biscuit) ³... are out for a start, but you can't live for ever on (tomato)⁴... and (orange) ⁵... There are (man)⁶... and (woman)⁷... who spend their entire (life) ^s... counting the calories they take in each day. Some national (cuisine) ⁹... make you fat. The (Japanese) ¹⁰... have a high protein diet, while the (Swiss) ¹¹... eat a lot of milk (product) ¹²...

Personally, I'm lucky not to have to diet, but my friend, John, can't eat anything without looking it up in his Calorie Chart. This is carefully organized so that (strawberry) ¹³ ... and (peach) ¹⁴...are under 'Fruit'; (potato) ¹⁵... and (spaghetti> 2.4В)¹⁶ ... come under 'Starchy Foods', and so on. I entertained John to a nice low calorie meal yesterday and at the end I offered him some jelly. 'What does "jelly" come under?^’ he asked looking at his chart. 'Half a litre of double cream,' I said, pouring the stuff over my plate!

 

2 Nouns2.6 Number (singular and plural) (2)

2.6A Collective nouns followed by singular or plural verbs: 'government [> LEG 2.28-29]

1 Words like government and family are collective nouns because they refer to groups.

2 We can use singular or plural verbs with nouns like committee, company, family, government and jury. What will you be doing while the family is (or are) on holiday! These words also have regular plurals: Many families are in need of help.

3 We can use singular or plural verbs with nouns like the majority, the minority, the public and the youth of today. The public want (or wants) to know how they are (or it is) governed. These words do not have regular plural forms: (Not *the publics*)

4 We use only plural verbs with nouns like cattle, the military, the people, the police and vermin (сброд). There are too many people in the world. (Not *There is too many people * * There are too many peoples *). These words do not have normal plural forms, but note that peoples means 'national populations': The peoples of the Arab World have a common language.

Write: Supply is, are, has or have. Give two forms where possible. 1 The government is/are bringing in a new bill. 2 The company... going to employ six staff. 3 All governments... trying to control crime. 4 The jury... trying to decide now. 5 The youth of today... many advantages. 6 There... vermin in this restaurant. 7 The military... occupied the house. 8 The police... interested in this сase. 9 The public... concerned about it 10 How many people... coming tonight 11 The committee... meeting now. 12 A lot of people... signed the petition.

 

2.6B Nouns with a plural form + singular or plural verbs: 'acoustics' [>LEG 2.31]

1 Nouns ending in -ics:

- athletics, gymnastics, linguistics, mathematics (maths) and physics take a singular verb: Mathematics is not the most popular school subject. (Not *Mathematics are*)

- acoustics, economics, phonetics and statistics take a singular verb only when they refer the academic subject: Statistics is a branch of economics. (Not 'statistics are') They take a plural verb when the reference is specific: Your statistics are unreliable.

2 Nouns like crossroads, headquarters, kennels, series, species and works (= factory) are singular when they refer to one: This species of moth is rare. They are plural when they refer to more than one: There are thousands of species.

Write: Supply is, are, has or have. 1The acoustics in this room are very good. 2 This crossroads... dangerous. 3 There... four crossroads in our village. 4 Acoustics... a subject I know little about. 5 Our company headquarters... in London. 6 There... many series of books on birds. 7... there any kennels (водостоки) in this area? 8 The statistics in this report... inaccurate. 9... there any statistics for road accidents? 10 Many species of moth... disappeared. 11 This species... green and white spots. 12 Our works... a good canteen. 13 My maths... got worse and worse! 14 There... crossroads every mile.

 

2.6C Nouns with a plural form + plural verbs: 'trousers' [> leg 2 32, App 5.8]

1 These nouns have a plural form only and are followed by a plural verb: glasses (= spectacles), jeans, pants, pliers, pyjamas, scissors, shorts, tights, trousers: My trousers are torn. All these nouns can combine with a pair of, (two) pairs of:

I bought a pair of shorts yesterday and two pairs of trousers.

2 These nouns are plural in form and are followed by a plural verb:

belongings, brains (= intellect), clothes, congratulations, earnings, goods, manners, stairs: Were those clothes expensive (cheap)?

Write: Supply the missing words.

1 The goods you ordered have arrived. 2 Where... the scissors? -... are in the first drawer on the left. 3 How much … a good pair of trousers cost these days? 4 How much did you pay for... trousers? -... were very expensive! 5 I know he's clever, but... aren't the only thing in life. 6 I'm so pleased you got into university!... on your success! 7 If your clothes... dirty, please put them in the laundry basket. 8 My jeans (not)... faded much even though I keep washing... 9 I'm looking for the pliers. - You'll find... on that shelf. 10 All their belongings... been destroyed in a fire. 11 My earnings (not)... high, but at least they... regular.12 These shorts... fit me at all!

2.6D Write: Put in singular or plural verb-forms. LIES, DAMN LIES? Statistics (be)¹ is a branch of economics, but it is often said that there (be)²...lies, damn lies and statistics. Recent statistics of British life (show) ³ ...that the family (be)⁴... happier than it used to be. The youth of today (be)⁵ ... likely to live longer than the previous generation. People (own) ⁶... more things than they used to, but more police (be)⁷... employed to fight crime. Mathematics (be)⁸ ... a subject which is studied more by boys than by girls, as (be)⁹ ... physics. The earnings of working women (be)¹⁰ ... getting higher all the time and many women earn more than their husbands. Good manners (be)¹¹...declining. The public (spend) ¹²...more on clothes, and clothes (be)¹³ ... becoming more and more expensive. Glasses (be)¹⁴ ...worn by more people, but only a minority (favour) ^!5 ... contact lenses. Statistics (make) ¹⁶ ... us want to grind our teeth and can probably tell us if we have any teeth left to grind!

 

2.7 Gender 2.7A Male and female word forms: 'waiter/waitress' [> leg 2.39-40]

1 In many languages, the names of things such as book, chair, radio, table may be grammatically masculine, feminine or neuter. Often gender doesn't relate to sex, so that the word for 'girl' might be neuter and the word for 'chair' might be feminine.

2 There is no grammatical gender for nouns in English. Though there can be exceptions [> 41C], we use only he and she to refer to people and it to refer to everything else. It is the pronouns, not the nouns, that tell us whether the reference is to male or female:

He is the person you spoke to. She is the person you spoke to.

3 We still have a few male and female word forms (man/woman) and a few -ess endings that refer to females: waiter/waitress, lion/lioness. In the case of people, this -ess ending is becoming rare. In the interests of sexual equality, words like author and manager refer to both sexes, rather than using 'authoress * or manageress for a woman.

Write: Supply the missing words. Refer to this list as little as possible. actress, aunt, bachelor, bride groom (fiancé), cows, daughter, female, goddess, hens, heroine, heiress, lionesses, mares, nephew, nieces, nuns, prince, queens, ram, saleswoman, sister, sow,

spinster, uncle, waitress, widower. 1 John's brother is a bank clerk and his sister is a nurse. 2 My aunt is very nice and my... has a wonderful sense of humour. 3 My...is a little boy of four; my niece is a little girl of two. 4 My father's brother and sister have never married. He's still a...and she's a … 5 These days, few men become monks and few women become... 6 There is only one bull in the field, but there are dozens of... 7 The cock crows at dawn and wakes up all the... 8 The stallion is in a separate stable from the... 9 We call the boar Henry and we call the... Jemima. 10 The ewes (sheep) look quiet enough, but I don't like the look of that... 11 Tony is an actor and his wife is an... 12 John and Jane work in a restaurant; he is a waiter and she is a... 13 In fairy tales the handsome... usually marries the beautiful princess. 14 We went to a wildlife park and saw a lot of lions and... 15 In mythology, Mars is the god of war; Diana is the...of hunting. 16 Katerina is the... to her father's fortune. 17 Why does everyone expect the hero of the story to marry the...? 18 A widow can often manage much better on her own than a... 19 A... won the award for most sales this month; a salesman came second. 20 When you look at fish, it's often difficult to distinguish between male and... 21 Very few people know the names of the kings and... of England. 22 I took a photo of the bride and... at the wedding. 23 The Smiths have a son called Robert and a... called Jill. 24 My uncle and... are over here from Canada. 25 I enjoy being an uncle. I have two... and three nephews.

 

2.7В Identifying masculine and feminine through pronouns: 'He/She is a student' [> LEG 2.41]

1 The word forms man and woman tell us that the reference is to male and female [> 2.7A], but with most nouns that refer to people, we don't know whether the reference is to male or female until we hear the pronoun: My neighbour has just bought a new shed for his garden. My neighbour is always telling us about her famous son.

2 Other typical nouns like this are: adult, artist, child, cook, cousin, darling, dear, doctor, foreigner, friend, guest, journalist, lawyer, musician, orphan, owner, parent, passenger, person, pupil, relation, relative, scientist, singer, speaker, spouse, stranger, student, teacher, tourist, visitor, writer.

Write: Supply the correct pronouns in these sentences.

1 When I saw the doctor she told me to go back and see her again next week. 2 Jennifer is a fine musician... plays in the Philharmonic. 3 My lawyer told me... would ring me when he had the information I wanted. 4 Your visitor left... glasses behind when he came here yesterday. 5 Professor Myers is a brilliant scientist... should be given the Nobel Prize for her work. 6 Mrs Carter, our English teacher, really knows... grammar! 7 The artist, Rembrandt, painted several pictures of... wife. 8 Anton Schmidt works as a cook at a large hotel... is famous for his cooking. 9 How would you describe her? - Well,... is a student of about 18. 10 How do you know this passport belongs to a woman? - The owner has... photo in it. 11 My daughter works as a journalist and... has been very successful. 12 You don't know...so you should begin your letter 'Dear Madam'.